Submitted for award of PhD September 2006. - King's College London

the hill fort of Monte Pallano in the middle valley, and Fara in the floodplain.
However, no information about settlement pattern has yet been published.
The San Vincenzo Project was initiated by the University of Sheffield with the
intention of studying the early medieval abbey of San Vincenzo and its hinterland,
but the scope of the research has been extended to include also the study of finds of
Republican and
imperial date. ' 72 The project focused on the Rocchetta plain, Scapoli,
Valle Porcina, Castelvecchio and Salvone, and has identified a handful of ancient
sites. 173 The most important of these was the site of the medieval abbey on the
Rocchetta Plain. Excavations in the area of the abbey found a Roman villa-complex,
and revealed foundations of walls under the villa, which together with black glazed
pottery suggest that the abbey was preceded by an extensive site of Republican
date. 174
Patterson has identified this site as a village which exploited the arable land
of the Rocchetta plain and the vicinity of transhumance trails. He also argued that the
lands of the ancient settlement formed part of the territory of Aesernia rather than
Aufidena or Venafrum. 175
A survey conducted by Di Niro in the Tappino valley has revealed that the
agricultural terracing had begun already in the Samnite period. 176 Traces of a great
number of farms and hamlets were found in the region. A relatively large house was
discovered at Cercemaggiore (loc. Pesco Morelli), which appears, on the basis of
finds at the necropolis of Morgia della Chiusa, to have been occupied in the period
between the late fifth and the end of the second centuries BC. The areas around
Cercemaggiore and Gildone also show traces of small settlements. Excavations also
shed light on a farmstead near Matrice, which dates from the late third to the early
172
Hodges-Mitchell (1985).
13 Patterson (1985) 213-26, especially p. 218-21.
'70 Patterson (1985) 219.
173 Patterson (1985) 216-8.
55